Sunday, November 3, 2019

From Man to Woman and Back Again, Tiresias, Fulgentius, Myth. II.8

Tiresias serpentes duos concumbentes vidit, quos cum virga percussisset, in feminam conversus est. Iterum post temporis seriem eos concumbentes vidit, similiterque percussis iterum est in pristinam naturam conversus.

--Fulgentius, Myth. II.8

When Tiresias saw two snakes mating, he struck them with a stick and was turned into a woman. After a while, he saw them mating again, and as soon as he struck them again he returned to his original body (in pristinam naturam).

FULGENTIUS
MAP:
Name:  Fabius Planciades Fulgentius
Date:  5h – 6th c. CE
Works:  Expositio Sermonum Antiquorum                  Expositio Virgilianae
               Mythology*
REGION  3
Region 1: Peninsular Italy; Region 2: Western Europe; Region 3: Western Coast of Africa; Region 4: Egypt and Eastern Mediterranean; Region 5: Greece and the Balkans

BIO:
Timeline:
Little is known about the life of Fulgentius, but his writing style and internal evidence from his texts suggest that he was North African. In his three volume work Mythology, he analyzes common Greco-Roman myths, identifying allegorical, rational, or didactical purposes for each myth.
 BYZANTINE / LATE LATIN
Early Roman Lit: through 2nd c BCE: Republican Rome: through 1st c. BCE; Golden Age: 70 BCE to 18 CE; Silver Age: 18 CE to 150 CE; Age of Conflict: 150 CE - 410 CE; Byzantine and Late Latin: after 410 CE